Archive

The Museum of British Colonialism

| 25 September 2018

AN EXPLORATION OF BRITISH COLONIALISM The Museum of British Colonialism has been realised to creatively communicate a more truthful account of British colonialism. We have a documentary and a pilot exhibition in the works and will use this site to gather, share, present and comment on material and r...

Britain should stop trying to pretend that its empire was benevolent

May 13, 2016 | 10 October 2018

Interesting 2016 article from Alan Lester, Professor of Historical Geography at the University of Sussex on Britain's attitude to empire and the racist underpinnings of the view that the empire was benevolent. Published in The Conversation.

The families of over 100 people, on both sides of the border in Ireland, murdered by the Ulster Volunteer Force, in collusion with state forces including the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) and the Ulster Defence Regiment (UDR), have welcomed today’s High Court ruling.

Facts about Atrocity: Reporting Colonial Violence in Postwar Britain

2 February 2018 | 22 August 2017

ABSTRACT What did people in Britain know about the violence of counterinsurgency campaigns at the end of empire in the 1940s and 1950s? In many ways, British knowledge about colonial violence was widespread. But it was also fragmented and ambiguous: whispered among family and friends; dramatized in...

"Becoming an Orphan: Losing Both My Parents And My Idyllic County Tyrone Childhood"

Eamon Devlin/Peter Carroll (for Unison Active) | 04 September 2017

Eamon Devlin, his two brothers and their sister, Patricia, lost both parents in an attack on their home in County Tyrone in May 1974. Gertrude and James Devlin were victims of the so-called "Glenanne Gang" whose members included RUC and UDR men. Here, Eamon tells his story to Peter Carroll for the U...

Order of Mandamus in Glenanne Cases

Glenanne Overarching Report | 07 December 2017

Copy of the Order of Mandamus issued by Judge Treacy on 7 November 2017 compelling the Chief Constable to put in place a mechanism to complete the Overarching Report into collusion in over 120+ killings attributable to the Glenanne gang.

PFC/JFF respond to Chief Constable

| 15 December 2017

Following publication of an Open Letter from the Glenanne families the Chief Constable has written to all elected representatives rejecting the families' call for him to abide by the terms of the Order of Mandamus issued on November 7 by Mr. Justice Seamus Treacy and not pursue another appeal proces...

Families challenge MoD and Prime Minister in London

PFC | 15 November 2016

British Prime Minister Theresa May warned the recent Tory party conference about what she called: "… activist, left-wing human rights lawyers [who] harangue and harass the bravest of the brave – the men and women of Britain’s Armed Forces". She also vowed to defend soldiers against "vexatious allega...

What price a life? May's rhetoric and the MOD's reality

Tom Griffin, Spinwatch | 16 November 2016

In the aftermath of the Brexit referendum, recent months have seen an increasingly chauvinistic tone in British politics. One aspect of this has been a concerted campaign against investigations of abuse by the Armed Forces. Conservative MPs have pressed Theresa May to curtail the activities of the I...

THE British government was aware of large-scale collusion between security forces and loyalist paramilitaries from as early as 1973, according to documents revealed today in the Irish News. The files show Downing Street knew that significant numbers of soldiers were linked to loyalist paramilitaries...

Shock truth of bar killing

Steven McCaffery, Irish News | 02 May 2006

Thirty years ago a gun and bomb attack on a south Armagh pub killed three people. Now a bereaved relative is establishing the truth of what happened. What he has learned may force a rethink of the history of the Troubles.

UDR came to be seen as carbon copy of Protestant-only B-Specials

Steven McCaffery, Irish News | 02 May 2006

THE discredited 'B Specials', an exclusively Protestant part-time police reserve, was abolished in 1969 following its role in the violence of that watershed year. In 1970 the Ulster Defence Regiment was formed to replace it and would become the largest regiment in the British army. The UDR was to re...